Issue using VPN auth parameters with K3s + Headscale

[praciouss]

Hi,

I’m trying to follow the K3s distributed multicloud networking guide and use the VPN auth parameters with Headscale.

According to the docs, we need to provide the Tailscale IP when starting k3s server and k3s agent. However, in order to get that IP, I need to first run:

sudo tailscale up

and then check the Tailscale-assigned IP.

The problem is:

If I run sudo tailscale up before running the k3s server and k3s agent commands (with the required VPN auth parameters), I get an error saying:

tailscale up failed

If I skip it, I don’t have the Tailscale IP to pass into the K3s startup commands.

This makes it unclear how to properly bootstrap K3s + Headscale in a way that the VPN authentication works automatically.

Is there a recommended way to acquire the Tailscale IP and use it in the K3s server/agent commands with VPN auth parameters without running into the tailscale up failed error?

[brandond]

cc @manuelbuil